Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Who here has eaten raw elk liver from a fresh kill..

I don't like elk liver cooked let alone raw!

anyone that would eat raw meat Is an idiot just asking to die.

+1

All the bad stuff in the body goes to the liver.

Everything you eat goes there, not just "bad stuff." Then it is metabolized (made into different compounds, usually smaller)and excreted (pooped or peed out of your body). It doesn't just stay there and chill forever. The "filter" analogy is bad because it implies that the liver traps and holds onto the bad stuff. This is not correct.

All I said was it goes there. How do you determine whats there when you eat it raw?

Just saying.

You can correct me if i'm wrong on this, but doesn't the liver also filter out disease and infections?

You don't, just as you don't whatever part of the animal you are eating. "Bad stuff" goes everywhere the blood goes (if it's in the blood), it just passes thru the liver at some point and the liver deals with it. The liver doesn't take on everything at once, toxins can end up anywhere.

If the animal has a parasite infection, it is not wise to eat it raw regardless of what part you are eating. Certainly eating raw meat is more risky than cooked meat because thourough cooking kills any potential disease. However, depending on different regions/population of course, most animals that appear healthy are indeed healthy.

As a side note, meat that is frozen and then thawed and cooked rare/medium rare is less risky because the freezing is enough to kill some organisms.



Nope, that's a whole different system.

ALL of your blood moves thru the liver at some point and spends some time there, but I really dislike the filter analogy. It's more of a processing plant. There are enzymes in your liver cells that break down and metabolize anything they can. Just takes everything it can and breaks it down into smaller stuff and then releases it so your body can eliminate it or recycle it. Sometimes it will take something that is not toxic and make toxic things out of it. The liver isn't smart, it just changes what comes in. Toxins probably dwell longer in the liver than the muscle, especially when they are made there. But they are excreted from the liver and back into the blood stream where they can be cleared. They can still end up wherever (like muscle tissure) before they are cleared by the kidney.

It does a number of other things too, but those are not really important in relation to harboring disease/toxins. Healthy animals that eat grass and aren't fed pesticides or other chemicals likely have very healthy livers and the "toxins" you injest just aren't that big a deal. Liver is full of vitamins and other stuff too and it's not good to eat a bunch of it every day. But eaten in moderation, especially from a healthy critter, you are in no danger. I would bet good money that there are more potential toxins consumed in your average processed American diet than you will ever find in a healthy animal liver.

The risk comes when you eat it raw because parasites are not dead; just because I've done it doesn't mean I advocate it or play dumb about the risks. I just believe with a carefull inspection of the animal the risk is not as big as perceived.

Good info. Thanks.

You gonna try some liver now(cooked of course)?

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There is now way in HELL I would take a bite out of that liver. I probably would not take the animal either. I'd be on the horn with G&F to issue me another tag so I could go shoot a healthy one.

This was just curiosity for me. I don't eat liver in any form. It taste like bad meat to me.

Nope. But I once cut the gut with my mouth open.

No raw stuff for me--God gave us fire so we could cook!!!

At least it's not human; the movie "Jeremiah Johnson" left out some parts of the character Robert Redford played:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver-Eating_Johnson

i tried it, heart too.
its ok, but the flavor in raw liver is even stronger than when cooked.
I do like me some liver an onions.

Not me, but I've tossed some to the yellowjackets to keep them busy. They was happy bastids.